Angels on my Streets!

A gloriously sunny last day of May over the city where ambulance sirens joined the street trumpet players to remind us that big cities have their old stories.  No one seemed to have stayed at home, nor had their dogs.

“I should see some interesting people” I thought, “time to take my camera for an outing.”

And I did. After a short walk, got to Fells Point, where one is expected to see the easy life. Trattorias and osterias were full, so were the Irish and Mexican restaurants.  The café trottoirs had master and dog sitting under umbrellas watching youth go by. 

But I was not the only one hanging a camera from the neck. But some seemed already tired of the walk.

   

I wanted to capture body language today. The sunny day had brought out youthfulness in all walking the streets no matter their age. My challenge was the usual one: how to capture color on B&W film… So, I needed action, attitude, and just moments out of the ordinary.

And I looked for these.

The attitude and action came first. This young woman had the posture a self confident woman has. She walked with grace, with deliberate cadence, and held her cigarette just so. What I needed was to click to capture all these three characteristics which would define attitude for me.  Here is how I saw her:

Ok, next to attitude, I wanted the out of ordinary.  A rope- acrobat was setting her stage for a show. Meticulously she folded large scarf-like materials which she would use to dandle from a rope, 20 feet above the crowd. She knew I was going to take a picture or two and kindly smiled.  Her attention to detail, and careful checking of the set-up was a stark contrast to the nonchalance of everyone else surrounding her: they were just being lazy on a magnificent Saturday.

But I needed more. All these people around and no one had yet done anything extraordinary.  I wanted my 40 year old lens to capture something it had not captured yet.

The sun was strong and the skies blue.  For a second I thought my brain had overheated when there, in front of me I saw two angels! Yes, two young women, with immaculate angel wings walked by and mixed into the crowd. I hesitated for a second, and then took a few pictures.

You decide.

On the way back, I remembered a few lines from the famous poem by Pablo Neruda:

Well, now,
if little by little you stop loving me
I shall stop loving you little by little.

If suddenly
you forget me
do not look for me,
for I shall already have forgotten you.

May 31, 2014

© Vahé Kazandjian, 2014

Post Script: I did follow the angels for a short while, and alas, they were of our planet and earth. Two young women advertising a new line of cookies… Maybe I should have not followed them.